Wanted: More park space in Fox Cities

Lincoln Stingle, 4, of Stevens Point plays on a slide recently at Memorial Park in Appleton. City officials are planning to create a community park, similar to Memorial Park, on the city's south side.(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

APPLETON - More park space is needed in the southeast corner of the Fox Cities, local officials say — but a joint park between Appleton, Harrison and Menasha is no longer an option after talks ended in recent years.

Instead, the three communities are forging ahead with their own plans.

Less than a decade ago, Appleton, Harrison and Menasha discussed working together on a park. It made sense because officials knew residents from each community would use the park, and the communities would contribute to the operation equally.

But those discussions ended prematurely. As a result, Menasha created its own park three years ago, and Appleton and Harrison are developing plans for park space in the southeast section of the Fox Cities, where there is little green space. The southeast corner has several smaller parks, five acres or less, but lacks a large community park similar to Appleton's Memorial Park or Erb Park or Menasha's Jefferson Park.

Officials said the talks largely ended because of the time it took to develop a plan, difficulty in finding space that would accommodate residents from all three communities, and dividing the operations and costs of maintaining a park.

"I think if things moved quicker with the regional idea, it would have had some merit," Travis Parish, village manager for Harrison, said of the joint park idea.

Menasha was first to walk away from the debate, buying five acres for its own park in 2013 for Hidden Pond Park, near Lake Park Road and Manitowoc Road.

"At this point, Menasha is satisfied with the amount of park land on its east side and has no plans to engage in further discussions regarding a regional park," parks and recreation director Brian Tungate wrote in an email to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Appleton and Harrison stuck with the talks a little longer, but the passage of time and Harrison's annexations of land for growth areas soured relationships.

"Our inability to work together, to be honest with each other, has hurt the chances for a good tri-city kind of park that would have been good for all families in the area," said Appleton Alderman Jeff Jirschele.

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John Stingle, center, of Appleton plays with his grandsons, Lincoln Stingle, 4, left, and Grady Stingle, 2, both of Stevens Point, on a recent visit to Memorial Park in Appleton.(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna budgeted $1.5 million for a new community park on the south side of the city in 2017. The plan is to purchase a site for the park this year, with construction starting in 2018. Four baseball diamonds, six multipurpose fields, a synthetic turf field, a pavilion, a possible disc golf course and a park shelter for community events are all part of the preliminary plans for the park, according to the budget.

The park would be completed by 2021 at a cost of $11.5 million under the plan approved in the 2017 city budget.

"This is a tough one and it's going to cost some money, but we need to develop a plan so people can see what the vision is other than we need more park space," Hanna said. "We're hoping to take a step in that direction to have something more specific."

The trouble is finding enough space to accommodate a community park in the southeast corner of the city, and keeping it within city boundaries to ensure that city residents are getting the most benefit out of it.

The city is aiming for at least 40 acres, down from 80 acres initially, for a park near State 441. But the search has expanded south and north of the interstate, said Dean Gazza, Appleton's parks and recreation director.

Appleton had a potential land opportunity during negotiations with Harrison over a recent lawsuit on annexations. Village officials proposed giving Appleton a piece of its land within the growth area in the boundary agreement between the two municipalities in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. The city and village would also share the revenue from property taxes generated from that property.

But Appleton rejected the proposal, arguing that the land in the growth area would be in Appleton eventually if the village chose to abide by the spirit of the boundary agreement.

Harrison has since pursued other partnerships for a park in the village, possibly joining with Kaukauna Youth Baseball to have the village purchase land and then have the league operate the park.

As the village grows, there's more kids participating in youth sport leagues, and they need practice fields — which makes these partnerships attractive, Parish said.

So far, the village purchased 18 acres of land off of Manitowoc Road with the possibility of purchasing more land near there for a future park.

"As the community continues to grow, parks are a big part of the community so it's important to provide those opportunities," said Parish.